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Along Highway 57: A Sad Emptiness in Moscow
Along Highway 57: A Sad Emptiness in Moscow

Along Highway 57: A Sad Emptiness in Moscow

008 Moscow TN008 Moscow TN009 Charleston Street, Moscow010 Charleston Street Theatre, Moscow011 Charleston Street, Moscow012 Moscow TN013 Town Square, Moscow014 Moscow Mercantile Company, Moscow015 Town Square, Moscow016 Town Square, Moscow017 Moscow TN018 Charleston Street, Moscow
Further east along Highway 57 is Moscow, Tennessee, a town that looks as if it had been completely abandoned. The name of its main street, Charleston Street, reflects the importance of the Memphis & Charleston railroad in the town’s history, but on a Saturday afternoon, the street is devoid of cars or people. Few of the buildings along the street seem to be occupied at all, and the same is true of what was obviously once a massive town square along the railroad tracks. The gigantic Moscow Mercantile Company once presided over the spot, but it has been closed and abandoned, too. It is hard to tell what has brought about such dramatic decline in Moscow. A large plant of the Troxel Corporation just outside the town makes Flexible Flyer swing-sets, and there is a small scattering of businesses still open along the highway, including a branch of Brad’s Bar-B-Que. The town has several hundred residents, and is far from a ghost town, but for some reason the downtown has been totally abandoned, and it has an empty and eery feel.

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